‘The #weakest part of #security is us’ – #Ethical hacker on the #fight against #cyber attacks

Speaking at the Irish Independent annual Dublin Information Sec cyber-security event taking place in Dublin today, Mike G, who helps organisations in their fight against cyber security and hacking, said that humans are very easily hacked.

Citing the hacking of US actress Jennifer Lawrence’s Apple iCloud, Mike G said that the hacking was done through the actresses’ password for iCloud being her dog’s name, and the fact that Ms Lawrence had posted a picture of her dog on Instagram – the hacker went from there and leaked photos apparently showing her in the nude on the internet.

Mike G, who describes himself as a pilot, engineer, and ethical hacker, described the various was in which hackers can gain information about a person or a company, including through social media, certain types of jobs – “sales people often give out everything” – and even job listings.

In a sobering talk, he listed spoofing texts, calls and emails among the ways in which people and companies can get hacked.

In addition he said that anything can get hacked including pins, biometrics, TVs, and even our fitbits.

However when a person’s phone can be taken over, it’s “huge” he said.

In what was a stark message to businesses, Mike G asked those present at the event whether their company would be able to recover if the competition had all of their data?

However, the news from the ethical hacker was not all bad.

Mike G and his team do a lot of forensic planning, providing, among other services, cyber security awareness training, and impact penetrating testing to show companies their weak spots and how these can be overcome.